With outbreaks in the news and misinformation spreading faster than a virus, immunology and vaccination are urgent topics for high school and introductory college biology. In this engaging, hands-on lab, students will learn how the immune system protects us against disease while tracing an outbreak of influenza in a small community. Students will use real-world molecular techniques to screen a group of fictitious individuals with varying vaccination status for influenza infection: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect antibodies and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect viral RNA in patient samples. At the conclusion of the lab, students will pool their data and discuss the patterns of infection among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. The data highlights the need to update the influenza vaccine each year on account of the constant evolution of the influenza virus. This lab activity is suitable for advanced high school and early college, but can be adapted for students with different levels of preparation. Both the ELISA protocol and the PCR protocol are carried out as done in research labs, however lower-cost reagents have been substituted in certain steps, making this lab affordable and accessible to a larger number of teachers and students.
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